It’s that time of year. Christmas break is quickly approaching, hunting seasons are coming and going rather quickly and despite some really cold weather, folks have all kinds of outdoor opportunities for the holidays.

One of the biggest and best outdoor hotspots is right here at home as Lake Dardanelle made the state fishing report last week as the place to be for crappie fishermen. As many of you know, the winter months are a great time to stock up on the best pan fish known to man, and what better place to do it than your home lake?

The crappie fishing is reported to be excellent using red-white and red-clear jigs. Several nice limits have been reported and when you find a really good spot, make sure to give me a call.

Also, keep in mind the crappie on Lake Nimrod will heat up as well — if the water ever goes down — but right now they could be scattered anywhere, just like the ducks.

As for duck season, it opened for the second segment last week. But as I mentioned, an abundance of water throughout the state has birds scattered to the four corners. The colder weather should help to bring more birds our direction, and hopefully as the water recedes the hunting will drastically improve.

With the only deer season open this weekend being bow hunting, many folks opted for some small-game hunting. Both squirrels and rabbits seem to be quite plentiful this year, and I hope to give you a full report very soon.

The bumper acorn crop we had this fall has brought the squirrels in from all around. Although most acorns are now souring, the little fellows are still out and about, scurrying for an extra bit of food to put up for the winter.

On our lease, the rabbit population is at an all-time high as during the last few years we allowed some trapping after deer season. The trapping was essential to remove a large number of bobcats and coyotes, and helped the rabbit population to make a comeback.

The one thing I have seen very little of this fall is birds. No, not black birds or crows, as we seem to be overrun, but quail and turkey. The turkey population has been a hot topic as of late in the Natural State. If some solutions to our ever-dwindling population are not soon discovered, it could very well become even more heated.

The talk of camp a few weeks back was another cut to the number of days in the spring turkey season. We have still not had a fall season, and with another cut to the spring season the outlook is getting bleak.

As many of you know from previous columns, quail hunting was at one time one of my greatest passions. Arkansas was blessed with a tremendous quail population and some of my most enjoyable times were spent hunting birds.

Quail hunting in Arkansas is now just a distant memory. Last Saturday, after two months of hunting and running around the 5,800 acres I hunt on, I saw a quail. Yes, a quail. Not a covey, one single bird, and it was the first one I have seen all year.

Whatever you’re upcoming holiday plans include, I do hope each and every one of you have a blessed holiday season and get to enjoy some part of it in the Arkansas outdoors.